Hailing all Lake Lanier boating families, this is a casting call!

I spend the lion’s share of my time on photography. It offers instant gratification, takes minimal planning, and the post processing isn’t too tedious. However, I equally enjoy making short films, the challenge being the time required.

I find it interesting that when I head out to shoot photographs it is going to be one of three themes: a specific event, landscape or nautical scene. Yet when I engage in a video project it is a much wider range of topic. My path has led me through a wide spectrum of video productions providing me the opportunity to learn from incredible talent along the way.

Creating any video entails countless hours and uncompromised efforts. If you’ve ever been on set it is eye-opening how many people are required to pull of a finished product, and that is only on shoot day. Then there is the planning ahead of the shoot and the post production after the shoot.

I look at it like I do planning a vacation. You come up with the concept or storyline - like you would decide on a vacation destination. You envision and plan the shots you need to capture to tell your story - like choosing the activities you want to do while on vacation. Shooting is equivalent to the vacation. The post process is similar to when you return home from your vacation; there is laundry to do, photo’s and video to sort through and share, and the dreaded oh-not-so-fun part of getting back to reality.

My favorite part is the vacation, I’m obsessed with every aspect involved during the shoot. You would be hard pressed to find me not smiling ear to ear while I’m behind the lens. Couple that with being outside all day and it’s the winningest combination in my playbook! The post process is my least favorite part of video and still imagery. It is typically the longest part of the process, is tedious work, and my eyes are glued to a screen vs jackin’ around outside.

When the post is complete the finished product flashes memories of the entire process; what elements were executed flawlessly, what happened that was unexpected, what was the most fun and most stressful part of that particular shoot, what did I learn, what can I do better or different next time, the list goes on. Then the repeat with the next concept-turn-to-film.

While I have played a role in hundreds of projects, it is only the last few years I took the plunge myself. Complete with a half-baked YouTube channel, it is all consuming as a one-man-show. I commend the YouTubers who commit to fresh content every week – it’s tough enough coming up with six to eight hundred words for a weekly blog. Yet the feeling that comes over you is nothing short of spectacular when that email screaming ‘Way to go, Local Flavor Films! Your video is now on YouTube.’ arrives. For me it’s the same feeling as being at the perfect location at the right time to capture a sunrise or sunset.

I enjoy story telling. Some have said I have the gift of gab. Oh if it were only that easy to get an idea from brain to screen as verbalizing it. One perfect-day-on-the-lake last summer, we were anchored in a cove with the sailboat; swimming, jumping off, paddle boarding, floating. We ran the waterproof action camera all day not thinking much about it at the time.

There ended up being so much footage from the day it looked as if it were a multi-camera production, b-roll included! And thus our Sailboat Slide video, complete with the over used, cliché’d tune of ‘Sail’ by Awolnation was born.

This summer we are going to super-size the concept with more boats, more people, higher slides, bigger splashes and more fun than you should be allowed to have in one day. I can hardly contain my excitement until then considering the thermometer tormented me this morning with a balmy 19 degrees (that’s Fahrenheit) and a dusting of snow. If your family has a boat and wants to be in our super-sized sailboat slide video this summer, consider this your casting call - HOLLA!

As we get closer to boating season (or what the masses consider boating season - Memorial Day through Labor Day) I will post updates on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. If you want to be a part - reach out. If you want to help behind the scenes, have a camera, water sports gear or toys, WE NEED YOU! I said it was going to be super-sized, right?